thoughts (and links) of a retired "social scientist" as he tries to make sense of the world.....

what you get here

This is not a blog which expresses instant opinions on current events. It rather uses incidents, books (old and new), links and papers as jumping-off points for some reflections about our social endeavours.

So old posts are as good as new! And lots of useful links!

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Nothing
beats a good storm – when, that is, you are safely ensconced in an attic flat!

For
spectacular rolling thunder, Sofia is almost as good as Sirnea, my old house in
the Carpathian mountains. And this summer in Sofia has seen a lot of storms…..helped
by the majestic Vitosha which towers over the city. Early afternoon, as we came back from some gallery viewings, the sky was beginning dark threats over the mountain but it took until 5pm to hit! Two and more hours later, the car alarms are still sounding...

The
British Embassy is celebrating its 100th anniversary here.

Amazing
to imagine it opening in the aftermath of the two Balkan Wars - just as the
First World War was starting. I’m no fan of such places – although I needed
twice to register my presence within their stuffy walls. First in Uzbekistan 2001 when Al-Queeda
gained mountain passes near its capital Tashkent (this was –sadly - before
Craig Murray’s time); then in spring 2005 Kyrgyzstan (no Embassy) when there
was a revolution and we were given special visas by the Embassy in Kazakhstan -
then just across the border.

The
encounters with the personnel of both places were very civilized – which is
more than I can say for its representation in Bucharest!

But
I have to say that the most impressive diplomat I ever met was Klaus Grewlich –
then the German Ambassador in Bishkek. He had been the Ambassador in Baku
between 2001-04 (I was there from 2002). I was planning a major Conference of
its municipalities to mark the end of our 2-year project. He took a special
interest in it as the Ambassador of the presiding EU Presidency of 2007 –
inviting me first to his office to brief him; and then, on the day, catching me
unawares by asking me to take over as Chair in the afternoon when he had to leave.
He had demonstrated a superb grasp of the Road Map I was presenting to the Conference.He became an active academic at
various German institutions and wrote an interesting piece (in German) in 2010
on The New Great Game but died, very sadly, in June 2012 I have just discovered.....RIP

But
back to the Brits - to mark its 100th anniversary (who knows – it
could be the last!), the Sofia Embassy is inviting ex-pats and visitors to
contribute to a special blog.
I’m now working on my draft – which has to be more on Bulgaria than Sofia

The painting is one from the superb exhibition which the National Gallery of Sofia has put on this summer of Alexander Moutafov's paintings......Hurry - it closes next week........

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Good
ideas come when I’m in the bath or swimming – and the pool this morning gave me
another idea for the website name - “Open Conspiracy”……It appealed for three reasons- I
like the idea of people working – or breathing (spir) – together (con)- the
contradictory effect of the 2 words- It
has a more aggressive quality which “common ground” lacks

The
links give both editions. It seems to have elitist and rationalistic overtones which grate these
days but his introduction to the later book includes this section which rings
bells with me for my present endeavours

I
am a writer upon social and political matters. Essentially I am a very
ordinary, undistinguished person. I have a mediocre brain, a very average
brain, and the way in which my mind reacts to these problems is therefore very
much the way in which most brains will react to them. But because it is my
business to write and think about these questions, because on that account I am
able to give more time and attention to them than most people, I am able to get
rather ahead of my equals and to write articles and books just a little before
the ideas I experience become plain to scores of thousands, and then to
hundreds of thousands, and at last to millions of other people.

And so it
happened that a few years ago (round about 1927) I became very anxious to clear
up and give form to a knot of suggestions that seemed to me to have in them the
solution of this riddle of adapting our lives to the immense new possibilities
and the immense new dangers that confront mankind.It
seemed to me that all over the world intelligent people were waking up to the
indignity and absurdity of being endangered, restrained, and impoverished, by a
mere uncritical adhesion to traditional governments, traditional ideas of
economic life, and traditional forms of behaviour, and that these awaking
intelligent people must constitute first a protest and then a creative
resistance to the inertia that was stifling and threatening us.

These
people I imagined would say first, "We are drifting; we are doing nothing
worth while with our lives. Our lives are dull and stupid and not good
enough."Then
they would say, "What are we to do with our lives?"And
then, "Let us get together with other people of our sort and make over the
world into a great world-civilization that will enable us to realize the promises
and avoid the dangers of this new time."It
seemed to me that as, one after another, we woke up, that is what we should be
saying. It amounted to a protest, first mental and then practical, it amounted
to a sort of unpremeditated and unorganized conspiracy, against the fragmentary
and insufficient governments and the wide-spread greed, appropriation,
clumsiness, and waste that are now going on. But unlike conspiracies in general
this widening protest and conspiracy against established things would, by its
very nature, go on in the daylight, and it would be willing to accept
participation and help from every quarter. It would, in fact, become an
"Open Conspiracy," a necessary, naturally evolved conspiracy, to
adjust our dislocated world.

I
have thought and written a lot about this Open Conspiracy since first it dawned
upon me as being something that was bound to happen in people's minds and
wills. I introduced it in a novel called The World of William Clissold, in
1927. I published a little book called The Open Conspiracy in 1928,
into which I put what I had in my mind at that time. It was an unsatisfactory
little book even when I published it, not quite plain enough and not quite
confident enough, and evidently unsure of its readers. It already looks old-fashioned
to me now. Yet I could not find out how to do it better at the time, and it
seemed in its way to say something of living and current interest, and so I
published it—but I arranged things so that I could withdraw it in a year or so.
That I have now done, and this present book is to replace it.

Since
that first publication we have all got forward surprisingly. Events have
hustled thought along and have been hustled along by thought. The idea of
reorganizing the affairs of the world on quite a big scale, which was
"Utopian," and so forth, in 1926 and 1927, and still "bold"
in 1928, has now spread about the world until nearly everybody has it. It has
broken out all over the place, thanks largely to the mental stimulation of the
Russian Five Year Plan. Hundreds of thousands of people everywhere are now
thinking upon the lines foreshadowed by my Open Conspiracy, not because they
had ever heard of the book or phrase, but because that was the way thought was
going.

The
Open Conspiracy conveyed the general idea of a world reconstructed, but it
was very vague about the particular way in which this or that individual life
could be lived in relation to that general idea. It gave a general answer to
the question, "What are we to do with our lives?" It said, "Help
to make over the New World amidst the confusions of the Old." But when the
question was asked, "What am I to do with my life?" the
reply was much less satisfactory.

Of course, if you tap "conspiracy" into a search engine, you will attract some peculiar sorts....but perhaps "openly conspiring" has a more liberal tone?

Sunday, July 27, 2014

I’m
not normally in Sofia in summer – although the currents around the Vitosha
mountain and the trees in its streets and courtyards do offer relief from the
summer heat which has not been as evident as usual. Lots of rain – indeed
severe hailstones at the beginning of the month. Cars were banged shapeless.

The
flat I’ve been renting (from December 2012) is a West-facing attic flat in a very
central (Khan Krum St) classic 1922 building – with a leafy courtyard,
gratefully populated by cats who are well looked after by the city’s older
citizens.

The
Sofia City Gallery has now introduced entry charges - but at such a reasonable
level I can forgive them. 1 euro for adults – 2 euros for a family ticket –
and free for senior citizens. So I had no problems parting with 5 euros for a
book about “unknown artists from one picture” which focuses
on a famous 1952 painting by one Asen Vasiliev of some 20 Bulgarian painters
examining and discussing a painting. The magisterial figure of Vladimir
Dmitrova – known as “the Master” – dominates the group and the book
identifies each of the painters, sketches their lives and gives an example of
their work.

The
book is exceptional, however, in being the first I know to detail (in English) the
circumstances of the cultural crackdown in the late 1940s on Bulgarian painters.
But it does so in the strange elliptical fashion I have begun to recognise as
the true Balkan way…..

I
know something about the events – and the artists affected…..starting in the
early (but vicious) days of the September 1944 communist takeover with the unexplained death in prison of
graphic artist Raiko Aleksiev and soon affecting such famous artists as Boris
Denev, Nikola Boadjiev and (royal aquarellist) Constantin Shtarkelov – none of
whom figure in the book. Instead the text focuses on Alexander Zhendov, a good
communist satirist who strongly objected to the wooden bureaucrats who were foisted to
lead the cultural struggle against modernism…..Other good communists such as
the great Ilyia Beshkov are simply not mentioned………The nepotic (or "Balkan") nature of the editorial process is still evident in many of the new art books produced here.....eg the large one celebrating 120 years of art produced by the Bulgarian Union of Artists a couple of years ago. The images are great but the text tells us little beyond of the dates of the various artistic Associations, some of the names of the key artists and vague hints of struggles and conflicts.....And some curious omissions - perhaps these were the more independent-minded artists who weren'y "belongers"?

I
had hoped to see the exhibition in the Vaska Emanouilova Gallery – a largely
unknown branch of the Sofia City Gallery in a lovely garden beside Boulevard
Dondukova. It was supposed to be open – but wasn’t. Coincidentally, the Loran
Gallery was showing paintings of Shtarkelov and Boadjiev and will mark
September 9 1944 with an exhibition of banned artists.

I
stayed in Koln last year for almost 3 months and was a regular visitor to its
various bookshops and bookstalls. One post looked at the fairly negative picture of contemporary German societywhich was to be found then in the pages of the books on the shelves of these shops.

Stacks
of books at a local bookstore are dedicated to a new genre in French
literature: the downfall. It includes titles like "Reinventing
France," "France, a Peculiar Bankruptcy," "If We Only
Wanted To, "When France Wakes Up," "A Dangerous Game in the
Elysée," "Fellow French, Are You Ready for the Next Revolution?"
"France, A Challenge" and many, many more.Around
two dozen such titles were published last month alone. They always seem to have
the same central message as well -- that things can't continue as they are and
that France is in decline. It seems like the term "déclinisme" has
already emerged as its own school of thought.

Two
dozen sounds an amazing number….I well remember the blitz of critical books
with titles such as “The Stagnant Society” which hit us in Britain in the early
sixties. They clearly helped pave the way for the election of a Labour Government in
1964 after 13 years of post-war Conservative rule.

Nowadays,
such books are just water off a duck’s back.

As
a genre, I think I prefer the social histories – which give a better sense of perspective or books which plot the development
of literature over significant periods of a country eg post-war Germany

I was pondering “Conviviality” as the website name not so much for of its epicurean connotations as the link with the writings of the sadly forgotten Ivan Illich of the 1970s –
particularly his “Tools of Conviviality”

I
choose the term “conviviality” to designate the opposite of industrial
productivity. I intend it to mean autonomous and creative intercourse among
persons, and the intercourse of persons with their environment; and this in
contrast with the conditioned response of persons to the demands made upon them
by others, and by a man-made environment. I consider conviviality to be individual
freedom realized in personal interdependence and, as such, an intrinsic ethical
value. I believe that, in any society, as conviviality is reduced below a
certain level, no amount of industrial productivity can effectively satisfy the
needs it creates among society’s members.

And
I also have a weakness for words with a Latin root – such as “com-panion”
(breaking bread with); “con-spiracy” (breathing with) etc Perhaps
Illich is not so forgotten – The Atlantic Journal had a piece about him only 2 years ago

But I’m really looking for a name which reflects my interest in establishing a “common ground”
or agenda amongst social and political activists with which the power structure
and elites can be challenged in a sustainable manner. “Exploring Common Ground”
is an obvious one. And I’ve looked at various metaphors relating to borders – one
of my favourite writers EG Hirschmann entitled one of his books “Essays in Trespassing” and the concept is discussed here. It seems increasingly difficult - and yet necessary - for people to cross intellectual disciplines/borders and the word "trespass" is such a negative one that "bordercrossing" might be better.But "exploring/seeking common ground" has a head start on the other names......Except that I recall the titles of the two little books I produced in the 90s - "Puzzling Development"; and "In Transit". I still like both - the first for the play of words - the first can be either adjective or verb!And "in transit" connotes movement and travel - indeed I used it as shorthand for "transition". Unfortunately the website name is taken - but "Puzzling Development" is not - and, in my time, I have puzzled -- regional development- urban development- community development- institutional development- capacity developmentMore recently, I have been daring to question the whole concept of development. Perhaps I should run with that one? Except that the direction I want to go now is seeking/exploring (the) common ground.....

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Most
websites are institutional – and promotional. They are there to sell you
products, services and, in some cases, ideologies. The new website I am
planning will simply provide good material and writing to help and encourage
people to work together for a better future.

I’ve
had both a blog and a website for almost 6 years – almost 1000 blogposts and
about 20 papers on a website focused mainly on issues of capacity building at
both national and local levels in several countries but mainly in what we previously
knew as the “Eastern bloc”.

But
my interests have always been broader – as is clear from the blog which has had
several series devoted to such subjects as training, capacity development and technical
assistance; and to different aspects of Scotland, Bulgaria, Romania and Germany. It has also teased out issues on such themes as political parties,
universities, corporate power and the global crisis. A short post earlier in the year tried to explain this.

I’m
running out of website capacity but, for 100 euros a year, could simply upgrade
with no limits. But I’m thinking instead of setting up a free-standing,
“unhosted” facility. It will hopefully force me to focus more clearly. It’s not
so much a question of what I want to say – that’s a bit too self-centred…..and
I’ve always tried not just to give credit to others but indeed to seek out the
voices which were expressing what I felt more clearly. Its rather that I want to try to spend more time distilling the essence of the “concerned writing” of the
past few decades which can be found (if you search hard enough) in a variety of places.

I have a lot of experience at both high-levels (professional and
political); and (in depth) in about 6 countries; and both extensive and broad reading.
This is a fairly rare com- or rather decet (!) bination.

And
that is indeed the problem – that the “tags” I want to use – such as “capacity
development” and “community”, “municipality” – let alone “governance” and
“social change” – are so dry, hackneyed….and, ultimately, meaningless. I
accepted that my current website is a professional one – with a very limited
readership. But I want the new one “to attract traffic”!

And
that affects its name ....I have a lengthening list……in which “Conviviliaty” looms
large…

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

I
have decided to create a new website! I’ve actually had one since 2008 – a free
one hosted by Freewebs to which I’ve uploaded almost 50 papers – mostly mine. But it has never had
much of a profile (to put it mildly) and is now reaching the (very generous) 41
MB capacity which is its limit.

Now
I’m busy briefing myself on the various technical options so that I can talk
sensibly to him about the direction the site should take. Basically I just want
an attractive site with papers, images and text which show my passions and
encourage others to follow them……

Most
websites are institutional – and are waving one sort of flag or another.

Blogs
are more personal but do not, as far as I am aware, have the capacity to permit
the uploading of the large quantity of papers, files, images and videos I would
want.

I
am unusual in being interested in such a wide range of things and in having
amassed such a large library – physical and virtual……So this looks to be a
fairly unusual sort of website…..

Epiphanies
(or “Eureka!” moments) are memorable – and I therefore remember some ten years
ago being in the flat I had for a couple of years in central Bishkek. I was
flicking through a book I had picked from my kitchen shelf - Reformation –Europe’s House Divided - and suddenly realising that the intense disputations about religious doctrine
in this period were remarkably similar to contemporary economic disputes. Other
people, of course, have developed this theme of the religious role taken by
modern management and economics – for example Susan George in her 1994 book
Faith and Credit- a tough critique of the World Bank which was the subject of a brilliant satire here

You
would think that “Management” offers an easier target since it patently has
less reason to claim scientific status - not that this has prevented such
claims being made! Charles Handy’s Gods of Management is actually about “cultures” of management and resists the temptation to
explode the pretensions of management gurus.

It
is not easy to find a book on “management as religion” – although there are
several classics which have a go at the management gurus and one of them
(Russel Ackoff) actually (and famously) wrote A Little Book of F-Laws

So
much damage has been done to the arbitrary drive for “Efficiency” that one
would have thought the time is overdue for a savage critique of the religion of
management,

There
is, of course, an academic discipline called “Critical Management Studies” one
of whose foremost proponents is Chris Grey whose small book about studying organisationsis a clear and powerful read. But the discipline as a whole is a let-down and
rarely offers good insights - "Against Management" is a good example

Saturday, July 19, 2014

In the late 60s I
became a fan of “participative politics”. First in the small “ward” to which I
was elected; then in 1971, as chairman of a major municipal Committee in a
shipbuilding town of 70,000 people organising annual Conferences; and, in the
early 80s , convening six large Conferences of community activists in a Region
of two and half million people. Reports and actions followed. Focused, communal
talking has, for me, been an important social glue.

sprang out of the
experience that many conference goers have – that the real value of some
conferences comes from the conversations over coffee and lunch rather than the
lectures themselves. Lectures didn’t engage and often inhibited discussion –
one person standing at the front of a room of peers holding forth.

Conferences
reflect the power structure of an organization - the distinctive feature of
“unconferences” is set out in this
table

Before I knew what
was happening, I was in a world of “barcamps”, “brewcamps” and knowledge cafes -
all of which reminded me of the idea of World Cafes which I had last heard of
almost a decade ago in a book called The World Café – shaping our futuresthrough conversations that matter (Berret-Koehler 2005) which described
the dialogues taking place throughout the world by using an informal format
(set out like a café) of small tables at which 4 people sit initially to
discuss a question which has been carefully prepared. After 20 minutes everyone
(save one) changes places – and the previous conversation is summarised.

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Where
do we go for a journal which speaks to
the increasing number of people who are alienated from politics, corporate
power and the media; who want more than empty slogans; and who are keen to read
well-written pieces by those whose reading is extensive enough to make them
aware of their own limitations?

Not to newspapers whose deadlines make the
required quality of writing and scope of reading impossible – although Le Monde
and Die Zeit (a weekly) try hard.

Over
the past few years, I have several times commented on the lamentable choices
for those of us looking for deep, non-partisan and well-written coverage of key
issues facing Europeans. In 2011 I talked about “gated communities”

The
barrier to our understanding of development in other European countries is not
just linguistic. It stems also from the intellectual compartmentalisation (or
apartheid) which universities and European networks have encouraged in our
elites. European political scientists, for example, have excellent networks but
talk in a highly specialised language about recondite topics which they publish
in inaccessible language in inaccessible journals. What insights they have
about each other’s countries are rarely made available to the wider public. The
same is true of the civil service nationals who participate in EC comitology or
OECD networks – let alone the myriad professional networks. We talk about gated
communities – but they exist virtually as well as physically.

In
my days, we had the magazine Encounter (Der Monat in
Germany) which gave me stimulating articles by renowned French, German and
Italian writers, for example, but was then discovered to have been funded by the CIA and soon
folded. Where is its equivalent these days? Le Monde Diplomatique and Lettre International perhaps - except
there is, sadly, no English version of the latter - and only a short version in
English of the former (whose language is, in any event, a bit opaque).

there are tens of thousands
of journalists and academics churning out articles in (hundreds of) thousands
of journals in the general field of politics and social policy. Can we not
think of a way of making the better of these pieces more accessible - in
various European languages?? That's the Eurozine
concept- but they're selecting
from a rather precious bunch of cultural magazines whose language doesn't take
many prisoners!

One
of the factors which gets in the way of even this simple idea is the
specialisation of political, professional and academic silos - just have a
look at the lists of academic magazines at publishers such as Elsevier,Sage or
Wiley. Twenty- odd years ago journals such as Parliamentary Affairs, Political Quarterly, West European
Politics and Government and Opposition offered
civilised reading. Now, with the exception of Political Quarterly, you get
highly specialised topics with boring technocratic prose.

Perhaps
I’ve been missing something….I google “lists” and come up with an interesting table
of about 150 political magazines covering key countries. But nothing I didn’t already know.

By
the way, the current edition Government and Opposition – on The Power of Finance - can be downloaded free – article by article (until mid-August). And the
journal Governance does have a useful blog which
picks out worthwhile articles.

I
liked the way the original editors of The Nation expressed its philosophy way
back in 1835

The Nation will not be the
organ of any party, sect, or body. It will, on the contrary, make an earnest
effort to bring to the discussion of political and social questions a really
critical spirit, and to wage war upon the vices of violence, exaggeration, and
misrepresentation by which so much of the political writing of the day is
marred.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

We
are all inspired by Stephane Hessel who, in his nineties, produced the short book (“Indignez-vous!”) about the
global crisis and inequality which touched millions. But I hadn’t heard of
Grace Lee Boggs who is apparently still campaigning in America at the age of 99. A journal
devoted to art and politics called Guernica has a fascinating interview with this Chinese-American philosopher who has been refusing to stand still for
nearly a century, mobilizing alongside various freedom struggles from civil
rights to climate change campaigns. The opening chapter of her book – The next American Revolution; sustainable activism for the 21st Century - has echoes, for me, of Robert Quinn’s hugely underrated Change the World

Most
of us operate with an “instrumental” or “agency” view of social change. We
assume that “a” causes “z” and that socio-economic ills can therefore be dealt
with by specific measures. But a couple of decades ago, an approach – variously
called “chaos” or “complexity” theory – started to undermine such assumptions. Writers
such as Margaret Wheatley and Quinn have shown the implications for management
practice - but few activists have.

Lee
Boggs puts it as follows

I
think it’s really important that we get rid of the idea that protest will
create change. The idea of protest organizing, as summarized by [community organizer]
Saul Alinsky, is that if we put enough pressure on the government, it will do
things to help people. We don’t realize that that kind of organizing worked
only when the government was very strong, when the West ruled the world,
relatively speaking. But with globalization and the weakening of the
nation-state, that kind of organizing doesn’t work. We need to do what I call
visionary organizing. Recognize that in every crisis, people do not respond
like a school of fish. Some people become immobilized. Some people become very
angry, some commit suicide, and other people begin to find solutions. And
visionary organizers look at those people, recognize them and encourage them,
and they become leaders of the future.

Quinn’s bookwas
produced in 1996 and is an excellent antidote for those who are still fixated
on the expert model of change – those who imagine it can be achieved by
“telling”, “forcing” or by participation. Quinn exposes the last for what it
normally is (despite the best intentions of those in power) – a form of
manipulation – and effectively encourages us, through examples, to have more
faith in people.

As
the blurb says – “the idea that inner change makes outer change possible has
always been part of spiritual and psychological teachings. But not an idea
that’s generally addressed in leadership and management training.

Quinn
looks at how leaders such as Gandhi and Luther King mobilised people for major
change and derives certain principles for “change agents” to enable them to
help ordinary people achieve transformative change. These principles include
recognizing our own hypocrisy and fears; “going with the flow” and “enticing
through moral power”

It was one of two
books I bought recently to help me throw some light on the two 1912-13 Balkan
conflicts in which first Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia united to fight
(successfully) the Ottomans and then divided to fight one
another. I quickly discovered that the book is mistitled and that the
Balkan wars to which the title referred are in fact the various struggles (not
least between brigands) and bloodletting which have characterised the area for
centuries. It is none the worse for that wider focus. The second book – by a
Serb – has the narrower focus.

this book is a
work of cultural sociology in seeking to uncover the patterns of history that
have led to constant conflict, the choices that led to cycles of endless acts
of retribution, the cultural scripts of martyrdom, betrayal, and defeat that
have led to the nursing of grudges. There are a lot of people who come off
looking very poor in this book, whether it is exploitative Phanariot Greeks in
areas like Moldova and Rumania; the Ottoman sultans (even when in reform mood);
or the brigands whose oppressive and exploitative ways was a result of and
contributed to chaos and anarchy throughout the Balkans. But towering above all
this is the two-faced nature of the interest of the “Great Powers” in the
region

We know little of
these wars in the West – coverage of the ethnic cleansing of the 90s focused on
older struggles, not on the events of 100 years ago. And there were very few
commemorations in 2012 and 2013 – particularly in Bulgaria which risked (and
lost) everything by its wanton attack after the cease-fire on its previous ally
Serbia in order to try to win the disputed lands of neighbouring Macedonia.
Illusions of a lost grandeur! Of course, with my interest in Bulgarian painting
of that period, I come across frequent references to the time many of my
favourite artists spent as war artists in this period….

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

The trip to
Zarnesti is always a pleasure – down the spectacular road on the narrow ridge
which separates Moiecu and Pestera villages on either side below (with the mountain ranges
behind them); through Bran and then left at the old village of Tohani with its
saxon houses; then the short run in open country with the side of the Piatra
Craiului range towering on the left. The trip this time was for dental purposes
– my partner’s not mine – and I was able to use the time to visit the amazing
16th century Gothic church in the centre (opposite the municipality) which has
stunning mural paintings – from 1515! I have to confess that I have neglected
this aspect of the country’s painting heritage and could immediately sense the
difference in colour tints – clearly coming from the Catholic west rather than
the Byzantine church whose painting style alienates me. My daughter, at the
same time, was visiting the area further north and brought back beautiful shots
from the village museum in Sibiu.

So when, on
Monday, I came across a book on Gothic Mural Paintings of Transylvania by Dana
Jenei – as well as one on the Wooden Churches of Salaj (North-west of Cluj) by
Ana Barga, I had no hesitation in buying copies, both being in English.

Like most
achievers, I have known depression – fortunately only for a few years in the
last half of the 1980s. In my case the causes were external/contextual rather
than chemical/genetic – strong elements of manic depression – I worked myself
very hard. So I was able (slowly) to identify the root causes and even have a
stab at understanding the trigger events and therefore be in a better position
to deal with it when it next reared its head.

It didn’t help
that I was living in dark, damp Scotland! I would basically hibernate for the
winter months – during 3-4 years.

I tried therapy -
but was too good with words for that really to be much help - and fairly
quickly gave up lithium. What I did was to make a fundamental change to my life
– I left my family, my job and my country! That was 24 years ago – and only in
2010 suffered again – for about 6 months when 2 projects were really
screwing me up – one in Beijing. Since the experience, I think I have a
different attitude to life – I have become more grateful for my blessings…

So it’s a
condition for which I have a lot of sympathy. And am always pleased when a
prominent person (like Stephen Fry) comes out strongly about his experience.

In my days (almost
30 years ago) there wasn’t all that much to read – although I do remember the
anguish of Philip Toynbee’s diaries

Solomon’s book is
a big one (more than 500 pages) which mixes harrowing tales of his own case
with those of others and extensive research (the bibliography and notes account
for the last 100 pages) But is a real page-turner (I’ve almost finished it in 2
days).In the extent to which it peeled back lives, I was reminded of the way Theodore Zeldin dealt with individuals in his marvellous Intimate History of Humanity

Friday, July 4, 2014

For
years I’ve been searching for a book which did justice – in a clear and
generous way - to the complexity of the world we inhabit; and which helped us
place our own “confused take” on “wicked problems” into a wider schema. Hood’s
1990 book “The Art of the State” (mentioned in the last post) is one of a handful in these.

Hulme’s book clarifies the climate debate by using seven different lenses
(or perspectives) to make sense of climate change: science, economics,
religion, psychology, media, development, and governance. His
argument is basically that –

·We
understand science and scientific knowledge in different ways

·We
value things differently·We
believe different things about ourselves, the universe and our place in the
universe

Climate science is an instance of “post-normal science” (p. 78). In today’s
contentious political context, scientists must more than ever “recognize and
reflect upon their own values and upon the collective values of their
colleagues. These values and world views continually seep into their activities
as scientists and inflect the knowledge that is formed” (p. 79).

Post-normal
science also challenges how expertise is understood. People with varying
backgrounds want and need to weigh in on important issues of the day, including
climate change. Hence, natural science must cede some governance to wider
society and some ground to “other ways of knowing” (p. 81). In post-normal
science, moreover, people acknowledge that there is much that we cannot
predict; uncertainty is intrinsic
to climate change issues. The
public and their political representatives may want certainty, but it is not
available in regard to the behaviour of a chaotic system such as climate (pp. 83-84).

In chapter four, “The Endowment of Value,” Hulme offers an exceptionally
well-informed review of debates carried on by people with very different
evaluations of what ought to be done about climate change. He remarks: “We
disagree about climate change because we view our responsibilities to future
generations differently, because we value humans and Nature in different ways,
and because we have different attitudes to climate risks” (p. 139).

Similarly, in chapter five, he maintains that: “One of the reasons we
disagree about climate change is because we believe different things about our
duty to others, to Nature, and to our deities” (p. 144). Hulme describes a host
of competing but important views about such duties, including monotheistic stewardship
of Creation, the responsibility to care for life, environmentalism as a
religious discourse, the moral imperative to care for Gaia, and romantic views
of nature.

Theologies of blame arise, one of which accuses individuals of responsibility for climate change, another of which accuses
socio-economic systems

Hollings’ myths, which describe the degree to which people think of nature
as stable or unstable, are represented by four pictures depicting different
arrangements of a ball in a landscape. The degree of natural stability is
indicated bywhether the
ball is situated so as to resist change of location (nature as stable) or
whether the ball is situated so as to be easily moved (nature as unstable).

·The first picture, nature as “benign,” depicts a ball
sitting at the bottom of a U-shaped landscape. According to this view, favoured
by individualists, nature is
capable of maintaining or reestablishing its current organization despite human
influence, such as introducing large amounts of C02 into the atmosphere.
Human-friendly nature will continue to operate within boundaries favourable to
human life, so the risk posed by climate change is low. In other words, we do
not have to “turn back the clock of technological change” (p. 190).

·The second picture,
nature as “ephemeral,” shows the ball as unstably perched atop a steep hill,
thus easily thrown out of kilter by human interference. This view of nature,
favoured by egalitarians, indicates
that the risks posed by climate change are high, such that excessive fossil
fuel use will likely lead to climate chaos and the collapse of civilization.

·The third
picture, nature as “perverse/tolerant,” shows the ball at the bottom of a
deep valley formed by two hills. According to this view of nature, favoured by hierarchalists, nature is
somewhat unpredictable, but also relatively resilient, if managed
appropriately. Guided by scientific knowledge, we can develop predictive
abilities that will allow us to formulate policies needed to limit climate
change.

·Finally, the fourth
picture, nature as “capricious,” shows a ball sitting on a line. According
to this view, favoured by fatalists, nature is basically unpredictable, given that its behaviour is influenced
not only by human behaviour, but also by countless other factors, including
many unknown to us. Climate will continue, as ever, to pose change and thus
risk to humans, some of whom will cope, while others will not. For the
fatalist, climate change of one sort or another will continue even if
industrial civilization immediately grinds to a halt (pp.188-190).

After entertaining the possibility of viewing climate change as either a
“clumsy” problem or even as a “wicked” problem (one so complex that some proposed
solutions end up undermining other solutions), Hulme concludes that climate is
not a “problem” to be solved at all. Instead, it is an opportunity to transform how we understand ourselves and
relate to one another.

The opportunity favoured by Hulme becomes clear in his
discussion of what he calls the four
leading “myths” of climate change: Lamenting Eden, Presaging Apocalypse, Constructing
Babel, and Celebrating Jubilee.

All four myths are taken from the Judeo-Christian tradition, which retains
some of its original animating force, even though it has become marginalized in
secular Euro-American cultures. They are

·Lamenting Eden is the myth adhered to by postmodern greens who
bemoan the loss of pristine nature and simpler ways of life.

·Presaging Apocalypse is the myth adhered to by
traditional conservatives who depict climate change in terms of calamities that
exact cosmic retribution for human depravity, notions with a long and often critically unscrutinized lineage.

·Constructing Babel is the myth adhered to by rational
moderns who, as in the Genesis myth of Babel, seek to become like God by
developing technological power. Whereas the peoples at Babylon sought to build
a tower reaching to heaven, contemporary geoengineers propose technical means
to gain control over climate.

·The fourth and final myth, Celebrating Jubilee, is consistent with Hulme’s vision of what
climate change can do for us. Jubilee takes its name from the Jewish Torah,
according to which every 50 years “soil, slaves and debtors should be liberated
from their oppression.” Metaphorically, then, Celebrating Jubilee encourages us
think about climate change in terms of morals and ethics, and “offers hope as
an antidote to the presaging of Apocalypse” (pp. 353, 354)

About Me

Can be contacted at bakuron2003@yahoo.co.uk
Political refugee from Thatcher's Britain (or rather Scotland) who has been on the move since 1991. First in central Europe - then from 1999 Central Asia and Caucasus. Working on EU projects - related to building capacity of local and central government. Home base is an old house in the Carpathian mountains and Sofia

about the blog

Writing in my field is done by academics - and gives little help to individuals who are struggling to survive in or change public bureaucracies. Or else it is propoganda drafted by consultants and officials trying to talk up their reforms. And most of it covers work at a national level - whereas most of the worthwhile effort is at a more local level. The restless search for the new dishonours the work we have done in the past. As Zeldin once said - "To have a new vision of the future it is first necessary to have new vision of the past".I therefore started this blog to try to make sense of the organisational endeavours I've been involved in; to see if there are any lessons which can be passed on; to restore a bit of institutional memory and social history - particularly in the endeavour of what used to be known as "social justice". My generation believed that political activity could improve things - that belief is now dead and that cynicism threatens civilisationI also read a lot and wanted to pass on the results of this to those who have neither the time or inclination -as well as my love of painting, particularly the realist 20th century schools of Bulgaria and Belgium.A final motive for the blog is more complicated - and has to do with life and family. Why are we here? What have we done with our life? What is important to us? Not just professional knowledge - but what used to be known, rather sexistically, as "wine, women and song" - for me now in the autumn of my life as wine, books and art....

quotes

“I will act as if what I do makes a difference”
William James 1890.

"The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back. I am sure that the power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared with the gradual encroachment of ideas"
JM Keynes (1935)

"We've spent half a century arguing over management methods. If there are solutions to our confusions over government, they lie in democratic not management processes"
JR Saul (1992)

"There are four sorts of worthwhile learning - learning about · oneself
· learning about things
· learning how others see us
· learning how we see others"
E. Schumacher (author of "Small is Beautiful" (1973) and Guide for the Perplexed (1977))

"The fundamental cause of trouble in the world today is that the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt."
Bertrand Russell, 1950

Followers

der arme Dichter (Carl Spitzweg)

my alter ego

the other site

In 2008 I set up a website in the (vain) hope of developing a dialogue around issues of public administration reform - particularly in transition countries where I have been living and working for the past 26 years. The site is www.freewebs.com/publicadminreform and contains the major papers I have written over the years about my attempts to reform various public organisations in the various roles which I've had - politician; academic/trainer; consultant.